It’s a bit ironic that Men in Black 3 star, Will Smith, was recently quoted as saying, “I don’t want to be the sequel guy,” especially when there are a number of potential franchise sequels with him in the works.  Including a possible Men in Black 4, there are also Independence Day 2, Hancock 2, Bad Boys 3, I, Robot 2 and, of course, I Am Legend 2.  While some of you may be confused by Smith’s possible return in that last one, I’ll point you to the alternate ending of the original 2007 blockbuster.  Hit the jump for a few snippets on sequel work from Smith and an anecdote about why he passed up the title role in Quentin Tarantino’s Django Unchained.

Some writer news recaps for you today.  Here they are in brief:

• Warner Bros. has tapped I Am Legend 2 screen writer,  Arash Amel, to do a page-one rewrite of director James Watkin’s Methuselah draft.
• Universal Pictures is looking to Contraband scribe Aaron Guzikowski to turn in a new draft of Evan Spiliotopoulos’s treatment of Herman Melville’s Moby Dick.

Hit the jump for more details on each project.

Despite missing the point of Richard Matheson‘s original novel and using crummy CG, I Am Legend made $585 million worldwide because that’s just what Will Smith does.  For those who missed the flick, Smith played scientist Robert Neville, the last man in a post-apocalyptic world that was taken over by mutant vampires.  Back in September 2008, we reported that Warner Bros. had hired D.B. Weiss (now the co-creator of Game of Thrones) to pen the screenplay for a prequel based on input by Smith, I Am Legend director Francis Lawrence, producer James Lassiter, and co-writer Akiva Goldsman.  Then the movie lapsed into development hell, and I hoped it would stay there.

But Warner Bros. has remembered the dormant project, and now they along with Overbrook Entertainment and Goldsman have closed a deal to make another installment in the franchise.  Hit the jump for more.